


Comet Blows as the Oleander Grows

by ruemasde



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Missions Gone Wrong, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 20:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17608211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruemasde/pseuds/ruemasde
Summary: In which a mission goes bad, because of course it does, Cass is a bad driver, and AuDy is helpful.





	Comet Blows as the Oleander Grows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harpydora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpydora/gifts).



> Happy Secret Samol @harpydora ! I loved all the prompts you gave, this was really fun to write. I haven't actually written anything in quite a while, so I hope you enjoy!

Cass isn’t sure why they assume that the Chime will ever make it out of a mission without at least one member unconscious. There must be one last shred of wishful thinking that manages to hang on despite the odds.  
  
Aria is passed out, the last vestiges of Cass’s emergency kit gauze wrapped around her leg to stop the bleeding with her ripped jacket acting as a tourniquet. Her head is in Mako’s lap, and it nearly slides off with every hard turn they do. Mako himself is muttering to himself and has a far-off look in his eyes. He’s not able to keep them open, so when they start to close AuDy snaps their fingers in front of his face to keep him awake.

Really, it’s less of a snap and more of the sound of metal scaping against itself, but it does its job and Mako’s head will jerk back up from where it had been drifting down. AuDy does this with their right hand, because their left has been disconnected from their body and is tucked into the pocket of their security vest. It was a clean cut from someone who got lucky with a plasma knife, but not lucky enough to hit one of the more flesh and blood members of the Chime. The knife has cauterized AuDy’s arm into a stump, which meant that they had the least immediate injury in the group.

Still, this means they are in no state for driving, which brings them to the worst part of this mission; Cass has to be the one behind the wheel of their getaway vehicle.

Really, Cass thinks, this was the only way the mission could have gotten worse. It’s not that they’re bad at maneuvering a vehicle; they’ve flown in high octane combat, they’ve followed military strategies. They have _experience_ driving.

They have less experience driving on the highway.

Their arms tense even more as another truck behind them honks even though they have _no where_ else they can go. They’re gripping the steering wheel so tight their knuckles are white, and the strain isn’t helping the pain from where the bullet grazed their arm.

“Cass you need to pass this driver,” AuDy calls from behind, and second before they snap in front of Mako again.

Cass isn’t sure if AuDy’s backseat driving makes the experience more or less awful. On one hand, Cass is not a fan of being told what to do, because of _course_ they can see that they need to cross over to the other lane to get to the exit. On the other hand, they had already missed their exit before because Cass had been on the wrong side of the road, so maybe they needed a little help.

 But whether or not they like the backseat driving, they still follow the directions, and then immediately have to stop short when the car in front of them suddenly cuts their speed in half. Cass can see Aria’s head nearly slide off Mako’s lap before AuDy blocks her descent with his arm, and the quick stop has woken Mako up enough for a moment that he is blearily looking around him.

 As they resettle Aria, AuDy says “Cass, if you are driving on the road, you need to look at the signs.”

And Cass is about to blow up at them, because they have been looking at _all_ the signs and they are all _useless_ \- when they notice that the sign in particular is saying to slow speed for upcoming exit.

And here Cass can see the yard where the Kingdom Come has been parked, and if they keep following the slow pace in front of them, they won’t make it there within the hour. And if it takes that long, Aria or Mako may need an actual hospital rather than the makeshift medicine Cass can provide. So, Cass makes a plan that plays to their strengths instead.

Cass calls into the back “AuDy, brace them,” and only gives AuDy a second to put their arm across Aria and Mako before Cass clams the acceleration and swerves between the cars on the exit, occasionally increasing the lift to hop over them. They get frantic honks as they drive but they keep their focus on the ship they are fast approaching.

Jumping over the traffic and blowing pass the one police car that seemed like it wanted to give them a ticket, they finally park in front of the ship.  
  
AuDy gets out of the car first, with a dazed Mako supporting himself on his torso and Aria in his arms and says “Cass, you will not be driving again.”

Cass walks around the car to them and places Mako’s arm around their shoulders to better support them and said “We didn’t have time to wait. Now help me get these two to the med bay.”

AuDy opens the door and they each take one of their teammates into the ship. As they walk, Cass says “You know, I didn’t need your backseat driving.”

“That is not true,” AuDy states. “You are a very bad driver, Cass. That’s why you won’t be driving again.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“You nearly got us arrested as we were escaping from the very big crime we had just committed. We would have been arrested for speeding after we just blew up a tech startup. You are a very bad driver.” AuDy shifts Aria in their arms a bit and says “I would have done a better job even with one arm, considering you are also injured.”

At that, Cass stops for a moment. They hadn’t realized AuDy had seen their injury; it was painful, but small considering the scale of the damage of the day. “Well,” Cass says, “it’s only a small graze, it’s not as big as losing a hand.”

AuDy doesn’t respond to that, and they finally get to the med bay. AuDy sets Aria down on a cot while Cass helps Mako stumble onto his. As Cass begins to gather their materials, AuDy says “I am going to contact Cene Sixheart, I will be in the cockpit.”

Cass just waves them off as they leave, focusing on the two teammates in front of them.

 

\--------------------

 

When Cass is finally done stabilizing Aria and Mako, they finally can take a moment to breathe. They close their eyes for a second, take a second to clear the fuzz from their brain-

And then nearly jumps out of their own skin as AuDy calls from the doorway “Cass, are you done with Mako and Aria?”

Cass instinctively puts his hand to his heart to try and calm the racing pulse, but the jerky movement makes the graze sting and they can’t stop the hiss of pain that escapes them. After a second, they reply “Yeah, they’re set, though they’ll both be out for a few hours.”

AuDy walks over to Cass and without warning lifts up their injured arm to examine it and says “This looks worse than before. It needs to be tended to.”

Cass pulls their arm away and sits down in the chair by their desk, grabbing a tube of healing gel with their good arm. “Yes, I’ll do it now, I needed to stabilize them first.”

“It will be easier for someone else apply it. I will do it,” AuDy says as they sit down in the chair next to Cass’s and plucks the gel from their hand.

“What?” Cass asks, thrown by the action. “You don’t need to do that. You only have one hand now anyway, it won’t be any easier for you.”

“I will do it,” AuDy says, not seeming to hear Cass’s words, or more likely just ignoring them. They take Cass’s arm and looks over the graze; it’s red and angry and has caused some scales to flake off. AuDy’s hold on it is surprisingly… gentle.

They keep Cass’s arm raised with their amputated left arm and opens the tube of the healing gel with their right. They squeeze some of it onto Cass’s injury, and Cass can’t help but wince at the sting of it before the cooling agent takes hold and the whole area goes pleasantly numb.

AuDy has put down the bottle and is rubbing the gel along his injury. Cass is used to thinking of AuDy as somewhat hard and unyielding, but with the medium of numbing gel between Cass’s skin and AuDy’s fingers, the touch feels soft, like there is some give to it. Cass can’t stop the shiver that goes through them as AuDy reaches the patch of injured scales and pauses for a moment before continuing their attentions, but more thorough here. They can feel the metal of AuDy’s fingers more here as they contact the edges of the scales, feels that the scales can only press up against them and not press into them as they would against their own flesh. Still, the gentle circular motions as AuDy makes sure off of their scales are covered by the gel is soothing. If anything, the firmness of their touch is… grounding in a way.

Finally, AuDy stops, but they don’t move their arm. Cass has been watching them tend to their arm, but after a moment of AuDy’s fingers lying still on their arm, Cass looks up at them.

Cass knows that they can’t gleam anything from AuDy’s face. AuDy also knows this too and loves to use this fact to make others uncomfortable. What AuDy probably doesn’t realize is that after being around them for so long, Cass has been able to pick up on some of their other mannerisms that betray more of their feelings than they’d probably like to let on. Like the little whirr that starts up when they are about to make a _really_ dangerous move on the Kingdom Come, or the way they click the joints on their fingers when they’re about to lie, or the way one of their antenna twitches, just like it is now, when they are trying to say something important that they’re not sure how to say.

So Cass lets them think, still looking at AuDy, and the moment feels more charged, with the way AuDy’s head is angled towards Cass’s, with their hand still placed gently on Cass’s arm, with the involuntary twitches on their antenna.

Finally, AuDy moves again, their head tilting down more and their fingers pressing down a little bit more, as they say “Cass, as the medic, you cannot keep obtaining these injuries."

But Cass knows AuDy too well to take the words at face value, and says “Yeah, I’ll be more careful next time. You too, right?”

AuDy raises their head towards Cass more and just looks at them for a moment before giving a decisive nod. Then, they stand up abruptly, and Cass find themselves missing the cool touch of their hand.

As AuDy walks away, they say, “The injury is covered. You should rest while the wound heals. I will meet Cene.”

But AuDy only makes it to the doorway when Cass calls out “AuDy, thank you.” AuDy doesn’t turn around, but they pause for a moment in the doorway. Then, Cass sees AuDy nod slightly from the back before moving back into the ship, presumably to the cockpit. Cass leans back into the office chair in the med bay and closes their eyes and does nothing about the small smile that settles on their face.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know what regular driving is like on counterweight so heres my idea; it sucks as bad as real driving does. I've also forgotten most of the type of tech from counterweight so i just used scifi terms that seemed familiar lol.


End file.
